Songs Of The Road | Page 5

drop of drink shall ever pass
my lips from now."
'E swore it and 'e kept it and 'e keeps it to
this day,
'E 'as turned from gin to ginger and says 'e
finds it pay,
You can search the whole o' Sussex from
'ere to Brighton Town,
And you wouldn't find a better man than
Jeremiah Brown.
And the vision -- it was just a wolf, a big
Siberian,
A great, fierce, 'ungry devil from a showman'
s caravan,
But it saved 'im from perdition -- and I
don't mind if I do,
I 'aven't seen no wolf myself -- so 'ere's
my best to you!
THE BAY HORSE
Squire wants the bay horse,

For it is the best.
Squire holds the mortgage;
Where's the interest?
Haven't got the interest,
Can't raise a sou;
Shan't sell the bay horse,
Whatever he may do.
Did you see the bay horse?
Such a one to go!
He took a bit of ridin',
When I showed him at the Show.
First prize the broad jump,
First prize the high;
Gold medal, Class A,
You'll see it by-and-by.
I bred the bay horse
On the Withy Farm.
I broke the bay horse,
_He_ broke my arm.
Don't blame the bay horse,
Blame the brittle bone,
I bred him and I've fed him,
And he's all my very own.
Just watch the bay horse
Chock full of sense!
Ain't he just beautiful,
Risin' to a fence!
Just hear the bay horse
Whinin' in his stall,
Purrin' like a pussy cat
When he hears me call.

But if Squire's lawyer
Serves me with his writ,
I'll take the bay horse
To Marley gravel pit.
Over the quarry edge,
I'll sit him tight,
If he wants the brown hide,
He's welcome to the white!
THE OUTCASTS
Three women stood by the river's flood
In the gas-lamp's murky light,
A devil watched them on the left,
And an angel on the right.
The clouds of lead flowed overhead;
The leaden stream below;
They marvelled much, that outcast three,
Why Fate should use them so.
Said one: "I have a mother dear,
Who lieth ill abed,
And by my sin the wage I win
From which she hath her bread."
Said one: "I am an outcast's child,
And such I came on earth.
If me ye blame, for this my shame,
Whom blame ye for my birth?"
The third she sank a sin-blotched face,
And prayed that she might rest,
In the weary flow of the stream

below,
As on her mother's breast.
Now past there came a godly man,
Of goodly stock and blood,
And as he passed one frown he cast
At that sad sisterhood.
Sorely it grieved that godly man,
To see so foul a sight,
He turned his face, and strode apace,
And left them to the night.
But the angel drew her sisters three,
Within her pinions' span,
And the crouching devil slunk away
To join the godly man.
THE END
"Tell me what to get and I will get
it."
"Then get that picture -- that -- the
girl in white."
"Now tell me where you wish that I should
set it."
"Lean it where I can see it -- in the
light."
"If there is more, sir, you have but to say
it."
"Then bring those letters -- those
which lie apart."
"Here is the packet! Tell me where to

lay it."
"Stoop over, nurse, and lay it on
my heart."
"Thanks for your silence, nurse! You
understand me!
And now I'll try to manage for
myself.
But, as
you go, I'll trouble you to hand
me
The small blue bottle there upon the
shelf.
"And so farewell! I feel that I am
keeping
The sunlight from you; may your
walk be bright!
When
you return I may perchance be
sleeping,
So, ere you go, one hand-clasp
and good night!"
1902-1909
They recruited William Evans
From the ploughtail and the spade;
Ten years' service in the Devons
Left him smart as they are made.
Thirty or a trifle older,
Rather over six foot high,
Trim of waist and broad of shoulder,
Yellow-haired and blue of eye;
Short of speech and very solid,
Fixed in purpose as a rock,
Slow, deliberate, and stolid,
Of the real West-country stock.
He had never been to college,

Got his teaching in the corps,
You can pick up useful knowledge
'Twixt Saltash and Singapore.
Old Field-Cornet Piet van Celling
Lived just northward of the Vaal,
And he called his white-washed
dwelling,
Blesbock Farm, Rhenoster Kraal.
In his politics unbending,
Stern of speech and grim of face,
He pursued the never-ending
Quarrel with the English race.
Grizzled hair and face of copper,
Hard as nails from work and sport,
Just the model of a Dopper
Of the fierce old fighting sort.
With a shaggy bearded quota
On commando at his order,
He went off with Louis Botha
Trekking for the British border.
When Natal was first invaded
He was fighting night and day,
Then he scouted and he raided,
With De Wet and Delaney.
Till he had a brush with Plumer,
Got a bullet in his